ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The altitude here seemed to have a noticeable effect on the fighters, but maybe it also played some tricks on the judges. In one of the more egregious robberies in recent memory, Diego Sanchez (25-7 MMA, 14-7 UFC) somehow took a split-decision victory (27-30, 30-27, 29-28) over Ross Pearson (15-7 MMA, 7-4 UFC), despite getting thoroughly manhandled from start to finish.

From the opening seconds to the final horn, this seemed like a fight in which Pearson could do no wrong. He hammered Sanchez to the body in the first, dropped him in the second, and deftly avoided Sanchez’s best attempts at an effective offense in the third. He seemed to have clearly won each and every round of the fight, though that didn’t stop Sanchez from pumping his fist in triumph while awaiting the decision.

But just when it seemed like the judges’ jobs couldn’t be any easier, two of the three went and complicated things with some perplexing scores, with one judge even giving Sanchez all three rounds.

It might have been a popular decision in Sanchez’s hometown of Albuquerque, but to fans elsewhere watching on TV, it’s likely to remain a total head-scratcher.

With the win, Sanchez snaps a two-fight losing skid. Pearson loses his first bout since June 2012.

Francis Ngannou further legitimized himself as a future UFC heavyweight contender on Saturday when he scored a first-round submission victory of Anthony Hamilton in the UFC Fight Night 102 co-main event. See how social media reacted.

ALBANY, N.Y. – Francis Ngannou came into his bout against Anthony Hamilton as the biggest favorite on the fight card, but it likely wasn’t due to his submission skills. Yet the knockout artist Ngannou managed to show some new tricks when he slapped a kimura lock (…)